Nephrologist To Mac Blogger: The Unlikely Career Path Of MacRumors' Arnold Kim

When MacRumors founder/editor Arnold Kim announced he was quitting his day job to work on his Apple news site full-time, we figured he was giving up programming, or Web design, or something Mac-focused. Nope! Kim, it turns out, is taking on the stress and rigor of being a full-time tech blogger and giving up the stress and rigor of... medicine!

Since 2000, MacRumors has been among the smartest, most interesting Mac news sites on the Web. (We particularly like the unique and helpful buyer's guide.) It's been a pioneering blog, with lots of analysis and community involvement.

Like most MacRumors readers, we never realized he hadn't been working on the site full time for years. Kim seems sort of surprised himself, as he mentions in his post explaining the move:

As crazy as it seems, for these past 8 years, MacRumors has been a hobby or part-time job. I think most people would have made this move long before me, but the momentum of my “other” career made it difficult for me to break free.

I started MacRumors.com in February of 2000. I was in my 4th and last year of medical school. I had been dabbling in the web for fun and decided to focus a natural interest of mine (Apple) into a website. My work on the site has since had its ups and downs. Over the next 8 years, I completed medical school, an Internal Medicine residency, a fellowship in Nephrology and even worked two years in private practice as a physician (Nephrologist).

During that time, I’ve been fortunate enough that my hobby has become successful enough that I am able to transition it into my career. While the trend may have been clear for past couple of years, I was slow to recognize it.

How can Kim afford to make the move? As Apple (AAPL) has shifted from a niche computer company to the global leader in MP3 players -- and now the most-watched mobile phone maker -- MacRumors' traffic has grown substantially. Quantcast reports that the site is now generating a staggering 37 million page views a month.

Kim's next moves: Building out his new, excellent iPhone/iPod touch gaming site Touch Arcade, which he recently launched with Blake Patterson; and eventually some non-Mac Web projects.